A history of the music industry

From the music sheet to the MP3. From Sheet Music to MP3: Music through the 20th Century Among the current notices of legal online music stores finally coming of age across the ‘Net, this is a lengthy but quite deep and interesting analysis (deepest I’ve seen so far) on how the music industry ended up being what it is today, how “pop” music came to be, and more. If anything, it shows how corporate greed and shady business practices are far from being a recent happening in the industry everybody loves to hate. The study ends with the state of the industry circa 1999, but that makes it no less valuable. [MetaFilter]

This looks like a remarkable document. It’s long (34 pages, printed), which means I haven’t read it yet, but it’s definitely worth looking over if you want to understand why the music industry acts as it does.